Salary and expenses payments for all Argyll and Bute councillors have been revealed this month.
The annual report can be found on the council’s website and is also made available here, together with payments for the previous five years.
From April 1 last year to 31 March 31 this year, the highest payment was £41,840.96, to Cllr Robin Currie.
This figure is very similar to his payments last year, when the highest total payout went to then council leader Dick Walsh, who has now retired.
In 2017-18 the second highest payment was £37,691.44, to current council leader Aileen Morton, followed by £30,435.68 to the provost, Len Scoullar.
The total salary and expenses payments to councillors was £830,366.21, an increase of 0.3% in the previous year.
Cllr Currie lives on Islay and represent the Kintyre and the Islands ward, which also covers the islands of Colonsay, Jura and Gigha.
“I would say that I am a hard-working councillor and try and represent the whole area as best as I can at all times. I have eight community councils in my area and I am a regular attendee at them all,” he said.
These trips often involve overnight stays, while going to Colonsay in the winter would mean three or four nights away from home, while Cllr Currie said he also had regular surgeries and meetings cross his area.
He is the council’s policy lead for community, housing, islands and gaelic and also chair of his local area committee, as well as being a member of the AliEnergy Board, care and repair board, area community planning group, and also the community well-being board at COSLA and on the Scottish Government’s Crofting Group which meets monthly to draw up a new crofting bill.
“All this requires substantial travel not just in Argyll and Bute but also throughout Scotland,” he said.
“It is very rare for me not to be away from home during each and every week. I have two weeks at home this month and two weeks at home over Christmas.
“If I have a meeting, say, on a Tuesday and another, say, Thursday, I have to stay on the mainland as I would be meeting myself coming back if I travelled home.
“I would say that over 90% of the meetings I attend require at least one overnight stay and quite often two or even three in a week.
“I’m afraid all this comes at a cost but I can assure you that I try and keep costs down as much as possible but it is not easy with my workload.
“An easy way of getting costs down would be not to attend to my work and cut down on meetings but I don’t think that would be in the best interests of my constituents.”
A PDF document showing the latest payments is available here: Argyll and Bute councillor payments 2017-18
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